Position in chronology
SAA 19 009. Crown Prince Ululayu Sending Bales of Reed (CTN 5 p. 204)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Ululayu. The best of health to the king, my lord! Assyria is well, the temples are well, all the king's forts are well. The king, my lord, can be glad indeed. (8) 36 bales of reed – I personally went down to the river bank, and they crushed and collected it in my presence. I am (now) sending it to the king, my lord, with the royal bodyguard Ubru-Nergal.
Source: Luukko, M. 2012. The Correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud. SAA 19. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa19/P224498/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-ka m⸢ITI⸣.KIN-a.a / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL be-⸢lí⸣-ía / a—dan-niš DI-mu a-na KUR—aš-šur / DI-mu a-na É.KUR-MEŠ / DI-mu a-na ḪAL.ṢU-MEŠ ša LUGAL gab-bu / ŠÀ-bu ša LUGAL be-lí-ía a—dan-niš lu DÙG.GA / 36 ma-qar-ra-a-ti ša ku-pe-e / a-na-ku ŠU.2-a.a ina ⸢UGU⸣ ÍD / at-tu-rid ina pa-ni-ia / iḫ-⸢taš⸣-lu e-ta-as-pu / ina ŠU.2 mSUḪUŠ—U.GUR LÚv.qur-bu-ti / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ía ú-se-bi-la
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P224498.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Mikko Luukko, The Correspondence of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud (State Archives of Assyria, 19), 2012. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2012, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P224498/..
Translation excerpted from Luukko, M. 2012. The Correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud. SAA 19. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa19/P224498/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.